MILITARY AIRCRAFT OF THE WORLD
radars for maritime patrol and SAR duties.
Customers: Argentina 5, Austria 2, Botswana 2,
Ciskei 2, Ecuador 1, Ghana 6, Guyana 2,
Indonesia 3, Lesotho 2, Malawi 1, Mauritania
2, Mexico 4, Nepal 4, North Yemen 2, Oman
16, Panama 1, Sharjah 1, Singapore 6, Thai
land 3.
WESTLAND
Lynx The first Lynx airframe modified to
Lynx 3 standard flew in June 1984. Changes
include the installation of 832kW Gem 60
engines, composite main rotor blades with-
paddle tips, and a lengthened fuselage faired
into a Westland 30 tailboom. The maximum
take-off weight is increased to 5,896kg.
Lynx 3 is offered in both Army and Navy
versions. The Army Lynx 3 can be armed with
eight Hellfire, TOW, or HOT anti-tank
missiles, and four Stinger AAMs for self-
defence. The Naval model would retain the
harpoon deck lock of existing naval Lynx, but
would be able to carry a wider range of sensors
and weapons, including Sting Ray torpedoes
and Sea Skua ASMs. The Lynx 3 will use the
MIL1553B databus to integrate a wide range of
avionics including a 360°-scan radar, MAD,
and dunking sonar in the case of the naval
version.
A separate development programme involves
the Super Lynx, intended for enhanced naval
operations, which is based on the standard
Lynx airframe. This has 835kW Gem 42
engines, plus a MEL Super Searcher 360°-scan
search radar and advanced dunking sonar. A
new tail rotor will be fitted, and swept-tip
advanced-composite main rotor blades will be
optional. Weapons will include Sea Skua and
Penguin ASMs, plus Sting Ray torpedoes.
The current production version of the Lynx
for the British Army is the AH.7, which
features improved systems, a composite tail
rotor rotating in the opposite direction, and the
uprated Gem 41-1 engines of the earlier AH.5.
Large numbers of the initial Army variant, the
AH.l, remain in use, generally armed with
eight TOW missiles aimed via a roof sight.
HOT and Hellfire have both been test fired
from the standard Lynx.
Several naval versions of the Lynx are in
service, including the Royal Navy's HAS.2 and
HAS.3, powered by Gem 2s and Gem 41-ls
respectively. All can carry up to four Sea Skuas
plus various homing torpedoes. Racal is devel
oping a central tactical system (CTS) for the
Royal Navy which processes all sensor infor
mation and presents the data on multifunction
electronic displays. Also in production is the
Lynx Mk.88 for the West German Navy, which
has a Bendix AN/AQS-18 sonar and Gem 41-2
engines.
Customers: Army Great Britain 127, Qatar 3;
Navy Argentina 2, Brazil 9, Denmark 10,
France 42, Great Britain 83, Netherlands 24,
Nigeria 3, Norway 6, West Germany 19.
Sea King The Royal Navy has ordered seven
examples of an advanced version of the
Sea King, the HAS.6, for service from 1989
in the ASW/ASV role. The HAS.6 is powered
by uprated 1092kW Gnome H.1400-1T
engines, and has advanced-design composite
main and tail rotors, an uprated gearbox,
improved radar, and Sea Eagle ASM arma
ment. The HAS.6 will join the current fleet
of HAS.5s, which have MEL Sea Searcher
radar in an enlarged dorsal radome, Tans G
coupled to Decca 71 Doppler, and GEC
Avionics Lapads acoustic processing equip
ment for both sonar and dunking sonar. Earlier
Sea King HAS.2s have been upgraded to HAS.5
standard.
Essentially the same as the HAS.6 are the 20
Sea King Mk.42Bs ordered for the Indian
Navy, which will also be equipped with Sea
The Westland Sea King Mk2 AEW has an improved Searchwater radar
Eagles and a GEC Avionics AQS-902 acoustic
processing system. The Indian Navy has
received the first of six Mk.42C utility variants
of the advanced Sea King, with nose mounted
Bendix RDR-1400C radar.
An AEW Sea King, equipped with a Thorn-
EMI Searchwater maritime surveillance radar
in a retractable radome, has been operational
since November 1984. The Searchwater radar
gives a 360° scan with a multiple target track-
while-scan capability. Ten Sea King AEW.2s are
being acquired, all converted HAS.2 airframes.
Westland also produces a tactical transport
version of the Sea King, known as the
Commando, which has a fixed landing gear, can
carry up to 28 troops or 2,720kg of cargo, and
may be armed for assault duties. The Royal
Navy has procured 33 Commandos under the
designation Sea King HC.4.
Customers: Sea King Australia 12, Belgium 5,
Egypt 6, Great Britain 130, India 41, Norway
11, Pakistan 6, West Germany 23, Commando
Egypt 28, Great Britain 33, Qatar 12.
Westland 30 Planned as a tactical transport
and battlefield support helicopter, the military
version of the TT300, which first flew in Febru
ary 1986, features a five-blade composite main
rotor with paddle tips, plus a strengthened
undercarriage. Up to 20 troops or 1,360kg of
cargo may be carried, and an optional Efis,
which is compatible with night vision goggles,
is offered. The TT300 is powered by twin
l,277kW General Electric CT7 turboshafts,
and has a maximum all-up weight of 7,257kg.
UNITED STATES
ATF Lockheed and Northrop each received a
$691 million contract on October 31, 1986, for
participation in a competitive fly-off to select a
design for the USAF's Advanced Tactical
Fighter (ATF) for the mid-1990s.
Lockheed (teamed with Boeing and General
Dynamics) and Northrop (teamed with
McDonnell Douglas) will build prototypes,
designated YF-22A and YF-23A respectively,
for a fly-off to determine which aircraft will
proceed to full-scale development. Each team
will construct two prototypes, to be powered by
either the Pratt & Whitney YF119 or the
General Electric YF120 engine. The four
aircraft will be flown in the 50-month demon
stration and validation phase of the
programme. It is intended that a fully inte
grated avionics suite will be tested before the
airframes are ready for their first flights in the
Autumn of 1989. Key areas to be evaluated
in the run-up to and during the fly-off will be
low production costs, (the current target
flyaway price for production aircraft is $35m in
FY1985 dollars), maintainability, reliability,
and performance. ATF designs will be required
to demonstrate a 50 per cent reduction in
maintenance and twice the sortie generation
rate of the F-15 Eagle, while the engine will
have to be three times more reliable and need 70
per cent less maintenance when compared with
the F100 power plant of the F-15 and F-16.
These targets are specifically set to make the
ATF affordable in the quantities required by
keeping procurement and operating costs to
realistic minima.
The winning design will proceed to a five-
year full-scale development phase, aiming for a
FSD aircraft first flight in 1993, service entry in
1995/96, and full operational deployment in
1996/97. Current planning envisages a prod
uction run of between 750 and 1,000 aircraft.
BEECHCRAFT
King Air/Super King Air The USAF
purchased 40 twin-turboprop Super King Air
200Cs as C-12Fs to meet part of its Operational
Support Aircraft requirement following an
initial period of lease.
Other military versions of the King Air series
include the C/UC/RC-12, RU-12, and T-44 for
the US forces, together with maritime surveil
lance variants produced for export customers,
for which search radar, low-light TV, Flir, and
acoustic processing equipment are optional.
Many standard civilian King Airs are in
military service as VIP/staff transports.
Customers: Model 90 Bolivia 1, Colombia 2,
Ecuador 1, Japan 23, Malawi 1, Mexico 2, Peru
3, Spain 10, Sudan 2, Thailand 2, USA 189,
Venezuela 3; Model 100 Algeria 1, Argentina
1, Chile 1, Ecuador 1, Jamaica 1, Morocco 6,
Spain 2, Uganda 2; Model 200 Algeria 8,
Argentina 10, Bolivia 2, Cote d'lvoire 1,
Ecuador 3, Greece 1, Guatemala 1, Guyana 1,
Ireland 3, Israel 6, Mexico 1, Morocco 3, Peru 6,
Saudi Arabia 1, Sri Lanka 1, Thailand 2,
Uruguay 1, USA 312, Venezuela 7; Model 300
Lesotho 1
34 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 1 August 1987